Planes, trains & automobiles (with a bicycle)

Never again will I travel with a bicycle --- only upon one.

I have finally made it home after 4 days of canceled and delayed flights in Dublin - which is probably the best place to have been stranded with a free hotel paid by the airline. I could not help but take advantage of the city's night life with some fellow stranded passengers during my unexpected stay. Despite the frustration of not being able to arrive home as originally planned, I embraced the independence - especially after being a welcomed guest in the Adrian's apartment during our extended visit in Lacoste.

While having a wonderful visit with my family in Parma for Christmas, I decided that it was time to return back to the states. There are many reasons for my return, one of which is the fact that cycling would not have been the primary focus during our upcoming months in Europe. I truly enjoyed the nomadic adventure of cycling from campsite to campsite, and since this pattern was determined to be improbable in near future, it made sense for me to leave the group. Despite cutting this trip short, I really valued the time spent with my friends as we had many great experiences along the way. I wish all of the girls well and success with their future travels. I also would like to thank everyone for their continued support before and during my adventure. Although the trip did not turn out as I had originally imagined, everyone's positivity and enthusiasm has remained with me and will continue to do so. No regrets. On to the next adventure...whatever it may be :)

- huli

Leaving Roma...Lost at Trevi Fountain

On the Train

Emma at Trevi

The Skinny Bathroom

Trevi Fountain
Gen's Room out at our apt. in Rome

St. Peter's Square Christmas Eve

Georgia, Emma and my's room The Vatican: midnight mass

Leaving Rome was an epic first day of riding for Georgia and I. It was hard enough navigating the narrow one way cobble streets with racing cars and motor bikes, but on top of it all there were tourists. We decided to stop by the famous Trevi Fountian on the way to the train station for a quick last second tourist fill of the Roman sights. It was something I had wanted to do and it seemed relativily practical. Emma was able to navigate us there very quickly, all the while bumping along the small roads. We burst out of one narrow street into the throngs of tourists snapping photos and thwoing coins (over 3,000 euro is thrown into the Trevi Fountain each day). We soon became part of the spectacle with numerous people asking us where we were from, wanting to shake our hands and cheer us on.

We left the fountain quickly finding oursleves on a busy, wide, paved, road that soon turned into a scary looking tunnel. Retreat, retreat, u-turn. Rome was a perfect place to practice the signs that Emma and Gen had intorduced to us the previous day, slow down\stop, u-turn, turning left\right and bump\hole\rubble. We headed back towards the fountain, stopping a couple blocks from it so Emma and Georgia could look at the cartoon map we had to Rome to figure out our next move. They soon took off and Gen and I quickly followed, unfourtuantly tour group number 27 got between us. Gen ringed her bell and we said sucsi but nothing seemed to work, the mass of people kept coming filling in all space between us and Emma and Georgia. As soon as we had taken off the two of them had disapeared in the crowds. With many little roads leading in out of the fountian and surrounding area we had no idea which road to take. We were seperated. Gen and I decided to head down to the fountain in hopes that they had noticed we were not behind them. There was no sign of them at the fountain so we went in the direction we thought was right, no sign of them. We went back to the fountain, no sign. We made a plan, wait ten minuets, if there was no sign of them we would get a map and make our way to the train station.

After a couple minuets I decided to leave Gen with explicit instructions to not leave the fountain. I headed up the street where we had last seem them, the section was only 500 feet but it was slow progress due to the meandering people and cafe tables blocking the way. At a small side street I spoted Georgia panic eyed and looking concerned, her face soon turned to relief when she saw me. Reunited and it feeels so good! Emma quickly apeared and we babbled about what had happened. I went to retreive Gen and we were on our way again. We made it to the train station with no more problems, swiftly navigating traffic circles and large intersections. Even though we only road 5.3 miles it was still very epic.

Doing what happens in Rome is awesome.

Well, Lucy and I made it, finally! We departed from New York on December 23 and arrived in Dublin early in the morning on Christmas eve where flights had been delayed for about 1 week due to bad weather. Our flight was only delayed about an hour and a half but we took off from runways that were covered in sheets of ice and about 5 inches of snow. We arrived in Rome and had to wait about an hour and a half for our bikes to come out of the oversized luggage door and then proceeded to push them through customs and then finally out of the airport where we were greeted by Gen and Emma who had been waiting there for about 4 hours for us to arrive, what loyalty!

After napping a bit back at our cute little apartment that was just a stones throw from the Vatican, we had some dinner and then went and watched the Pope give midnight mass from St. Peters Square. He was in the Basilica performing the mass and we watched from the square where tons of people had gathered to watch him on the 2 or 3 large projetors that had been set up.

The next day, Christmas, after a good nights sleep, we had a wonderful xmas breakfast, fritatta and breakfast potatoes that Gen made for us. It was accompanied by lots of champagne and a few little presents. We spent the day walking around, hanging in the internet cafe, and finished the day with a wonderful xmas dinner at the closest Chinese restaurant, one of the only things open at the time.

Then yesterday we took a super long walk to the colleseum and then to the pantheon and back, a huge loop around the city. It was beautiful and really great to be able to see the whole city on foot. It was really neat being able to see all the old architecture, narrow cobblestone streets, and historical sights.

Rome has been really great altogether and it feels great to be here with the girls. Lucy and I have been waiting for this for so long, jealous that Gen and Emma were doing it all without us. We're so excited to be here and cannot wait for the next steps.

SNOW and BICYCLES dont mix well

After droping huli off in La Spezia Gen and I got back on the road to continue our journey south. With the flat terrain and the wind at our backs we were making great time until we decided it was time for lunch. Gen saw a sign for a grocery store that we knew had tasty and cheep cheese doodles and our search began!!!! After riding a "few" miles out of the way we finaly found the store and our doodles. Gen went in first and after what seemed to be really long time she came out and told me the check out lines were extremely long. So in I went to brave the crowds of people for my bag of cheese doodles and after about another hour I emereged from the store to eat my lunch. At this point we were both freezing cold and decided that rather than stop early and camp we would ride untill dark and stay in a hotel. Shortly before dark we rode through some sort of national park where there were prostitutes sitting in front of bombfires just off the road (really weird to see). That night we made it to Pisa and after checking the prices at several hotels we found one for 50€ a night just before it got really dark. That night we went for a walk and found the leaning tower. It was a really interesting feeling to see something so monumental at night when there were no other sightseers around. Unfortuntally neither of us brought our cameras so after treking the mile back to our hotel we headed out again to take some picutures. After a long day of biking 90km and walking 4mi we slept well in our cozy hotel room.

The next morning we awoke to gray skys and joked about the fact that it looked like snow. We went for our complimentatry breakfast before heading out for the day. The next thing I knew I looked out the window and it atually was snowing!!!!! Unsure what to do we headed back to our room to weigh our options. We stood at the window for a while pretending like we could and would spend the day biking in the snow (we really knew that we would never leave our nice warm dry and afordable room). After we got tired of pretending we realized that we had made the right decision because it snowed all day and the roads got really bad. We spent the rest of the day roaming the city trying to find a gorcery store and allthough we never did we did get to see the leaning tower of Pisa in the snow.

The next day we woke up to find that the roads were still pretty icy as we could see people were shuffling along the roads rather than taking steps. As we watched people shuffle by for a while we decided to head to the train station and catch a ride to Rome (there was more bad weather coming). After packing our bikes and carrying them down the stairs (very tramatic and difficult when fully loaded) we checked out of the hotel. Once at the train station Gen guarded the bikes while I went in to investigate our options. Boy was it a mob sceen in there. Most of the trains were running late and the entire waiting room was filled with people trying to get information. I went back out to gen to report on the sceen and then went back to get in line. About 3 seconds later i realized that we werent going anywhere on this day and we headed back to the hotel. Since we had only been checked out for about a half hour our room was still available and hadnt even been cleaned yet. Later on we saw a news report on the caos at the train staiton.

On the third day we were getting a little stir crazy so we just decided to ride even though the roads still looked slightly bad. With in ten minutes I hear Gens bike slide alittle and as I ask her if she just skidded my bike almost slips out from under me. Luckily to roads werent too bad so this didnt happen too often. We were happily on our way when we came to a road block and could see no way around except to go all the way back from where we came. After going way out of our way to get back on the road we found once again that it was closed but seeing that no one was there to stop us we got on it anyway. Turns out they were just plowing and cleaning up from the storm so becides for the occational maintance truck we had the road all to ourselves. After riding down the Coast for quite a ways it started to rain and we strated to look for a place to spend the night. The village we stopped in seemed to be a ghost town and after stopping at every hotel the best offer was 86€ so we continued on. By stopping at the information center we learned that the town 4km down the road had a train that went to Rome and also a one star hotel. At this point it was already 3:30 and we were unsure of going to Rome in the dark so we checked all the hotels we could only to find none of them would let us bring our bikes inside so we ended up at the train station.

After finding someone who spoke some english to help me with the ticket machine we were ready to get on the train. Being alot more organized this time we rememberd to stamp our tickets and calmly got our bikes on the train. After stitting in the bike compartment for a while I started to get a little stir carzy and cold and thus began our dance party. Since the compartment was open we had plenty of space to move around. We danced and danced untill we realized that the train conductor could probably see us through the one way window in his compartment. After another couple of hours we arived in Rome carried our bikes down the stairs and out of the train station. Luckily for us there were pleny of hotels near by and we found a nice affordable one.

So here we are waiting for Lucy and Georgia to continue our adventures.

-Emma

ps...sorry if there are spelling errors but the Italian spell ckeck doesnt help much.

Always stamp your ticket!!!

Today is Wednesday, December 15th, 2010. We're sitting in a hotel room in La Spezia, Italia. Tomorrow Huli will split off from us, visiting family she has in the area for the holiday. Emma and I will continue on, meeting up with Lucy and Georgia, and it will prove to be the best Christmas present we could ask for.
Since we last updated, we have left our unexpected home base of Lacoste, France, traveling east along the Mediterranean coast, climbing and descending many mountains along the way. After sweating our "buns" off on one of our longest and steepest "hills," followed by a bone numbing descent, we decided to no longer face the cold. Quick thinking, driven by the approach of hypothermia, we hopped on a train to our current location. Getting to the station with 7 minutes to spare, we got out our tickets, ran to the platform, carrying our fully loaded bicycles up two flights of stairs , and we made our train. As the train arrived, we ran to the bicycle car at the front of the train and hopped on as fast as we could load our bikes. We were so relieved to make the train that we did not realize we were expected to "stamp" our tickets in the yellow machine. As a result, we were fined an extra 30 euro (more than double the ticket price itself) which dampened the mood a slight bit.
So here we are, freshly bathed and fed, sipping beers and watching American pop music videos. We hope everyone has a very happy holiday season!!!

sorry it has been so long...

So, since we last wrote, quite a bit has happened as it has been about a month. We went to Paris and Amsterdam via a really fast train to check out the scenes. Paris was a bit overwhelming and we were glad not to be there with our bicycles. However, Amsterdam was full of bicycles and somewhat quaint for a city, and we are excited to travel back there on our bikes. Once back in Provence, per Georges and Crystal's recommendation, we decided to take a 5 day trip to the Parc de la Camargue via bicycle. There, we experienced a lengthy dirt road where we saw a ton of flamingos, something none of us expected to see in Europe. We also took a also dip in the Mediterranean even though the water was a tad on the chilly side. Upon returning to Crystal and Georges' we have been helping out with the olive harvest and had a nice Thanksgiving with some new American friends visiting the area. We are planning on heading out on the road again soon toward Italy and will give you another update soon. Hope all is well and sorry for the delay in reporting our whereabouts!!

pics.

Pictures from an excursion to Parc de la Camargue.
We went swimming in the Mediterranean!















Flamigos and a lighthouse.













Local vin.

new photos!

Amsterdam: permitted structure.

photo shoot of Huli's new hair.

1000 km

Gen's new career path.

Paris!

Jerking down the road

Day 1 in the car, we had a scenic drive along the northwestern coast of Normandy to Mt. St. Michel and upon arriving to the campsite that night, we could see the lights of the island. In the morning, we explored both the touristy area as well as the more historic aspects of the island. Before a road was constructed for access, the island was only accessible via a land bridge which only emerged at low tide. Before becoming a major tourist attraction, it was originally a place of pilgrimage (and still is) as well as a prison due to its secluded nature. We then drove to Tours and stayed at a campsite near a somewhat busy road which was a lot different than all previous campsites. The next day, we needed to get some gas and just when we thought we were out of luck, we found a gas station that would only give us 30 Euro worth of gas. We did not understand why but just assumed it had something to do with the language barrier. We later found out that France is currently experiencing many gas strikes and protests. We camped that night in Royat at the Indigo Campgrounds. It was interesting following the GPS on the bicycle mode as it directed us to take many small "unpaved" roads. When we do use is for navigating by bicycle, however, it directs us to interstates and motorways. The next day, we had a beautiful scenic drive through many canyons and mountains. Due to a spelling error, we realized that we were heading toward the wrong village. Luckily, a well timed phone call allowed us to re-route and make it Emma's aunt's house in a tiny perched village in the heart of Provence. We arrived after dark, but in the morning, we were astonished by the magnificent landscape and vistas surrounding us and can understand how one could come here and never leave. Happy to return the automobile, we were delighted to have wonderful hosts who brought us to their favorite places including their own vineyards and olive orchards, natural springs, pine forests, Les Apilles (the Little Alps) and Le Ventoux (one of the peaks cycled in the Tour de France). We checked out a few of the surrounding villages in the area by bicycle, including visiting a weekly market with fresh bread, cheese, vegetables and the like. More to update soon...We look forward to your comments!!

Entry 1: pre-France

Dear diary,
It has been a long time since our last entry, but life has been splendid on and off the road. Upon leaving Barley, England, we were delighted to cycle roughly 53 km and to have the opportunity to spend the night camping at St. Albans Abby in the dean's garden. It was an interesting experience to awake in the presence of a historic cathedral after a lovely night out on the town. The next day, we cycled about 118 km to New Arlesford where we had our first experience with difficulty finding a place to sleep. We wandered the village for a few hours and ended up camped out in the back garden of a small bed 'n breakfast. We then had a nice short backroad ride to Southampton! We were home! The trip was over, hahaha. In contrast, Southampton, England was a rather large, bustling city and we much prefer our home. After lunch, we continued on to Portsmouth, England where we hopped on a ferry to Cherbourg, France. It was then that we were hit with the reality of entering a new country with little knowedge of the language. Still unsure of a definite place to spend the night, we wandered the dark streets of Cherbourg. After being waved away from our first choice hotel we ended up staying in a comfortable hotel in the central port area of the city. With internet at our fingertips, we researched the availability of camping in the area along our potential route, only to realize that about 9 out of 10 campsites were closed for the season. After much discussion about options and resolution to this significant debacle, we spent most of our first day in France weighing out our options and coming up with alternative solutions. Cycling and staying in hotels and bnbs would have cost significantly more than we had planned for camping, so we turned toward alternate forms of transportation to get us further south faster, where we hoped to have more camping options. We discussed ferries to Spain, which would have still cost more than we were willing to spend and we would miss out seeing northern France. A train also would not allow us the freedom to explore the landscape as we would have enjoyed. Afrer research and discussion at the ferry port, we we struck with a brilliant idea which we never would have anticipated and had even previously joked about... rent a car! This would allow us to avoid hotels by getting to open campsites, yet still be able to explore and visit sites not accessible wih our bicycles. From the ferry port, we coordinated for an appropriate timing and mileage for a rental car, but upon arriving at the office, we were stopped in our tracks as reality dictates that we must drive a manual car as they did not rent any automatics. Emma was the only one of us old enough to rent the car, and it was up to her as to whether we could pull this off. She agreed, only with the promise of much practice around the supermarket parking lot. We piled our gear into what we later named the car, "the jerk," and we were off, around and around and around the lot. Braking and accelerating were difficult at first, and we were a car full of laughter, but eventually, she felt confident enough to get out on the road.

Post two too come.. On the road south!

pics 2.

Le Ventoux, the "monster" of Provence (no, we did not cycle here, unfortunately because of dangerous cycling conditions: windspeed 120kph, temp 0C, windchill -9C)

poprocks chocolate!!

picnic near Les Alpilles

pics.

wifi hotspot in Lacoste, France.

George's Lacoste grapes.

traffic in Southampton, England.

3 more.

Great Chrishill Windmill, dentures in flint wall, Sweet Baby James and Jemimah. haha, might have to wait for some explanation from the girls, my job's just to upload! still jealous of the girls though, dreaming of the day we reunite in Rome. --georgia

... a few more.

here we got, chickens in the kitchen, peafowl and chicken friends, and Sir Robert Peel.

more pics!

okay! having trouble situating these pics with their captions again! but i'll do my best. we've got huli with fresh fruit, emma's magical expierence, and wellies!

new update!

To begin the month of October, we were honored with a lovely wet and windy day of riding in England. We cut our day short to get warm 'n dry at a bed n breakfast in Stow-on-the-Wold, spending our evening cozied up, watching movies while our saturated clothes took up most of the room. The next morning began bright 'n crisp. After a traditional English breakfast of meat, beans and eggs, we had the pleasure of witnessing an old fashioned fox hunt! Dozens of horses with quads and cars following trotted through the streets more for show and fun than to actually catch any fox.

Our goal for the day was to make it 90+ miles to our first planned rest day that turned into the rest of the week. After about 6 hours in the saddle (70ish miles) it began to rain and get dark but we pushed on (total of 93 miles) and made it to Barley where we made ourselves at home for the next week, feasting on cheese, bread, and wine, apples, pears, and plums from the orchard and the most wonderful home cooked meals.

Aside from hanging out with Dexter cows, peafowls, chickens, rabbits, squirrels, woodpeckers, pheasants, and horses we visited London, Cambridge, Saffron Walden, Barkley, Barley and Royston, also exploring the local footpaths nearby. Tomorrow we continue cycling on in good spirits.

H, G, E

the first photos!

sorry guys, I (georgia) got frustrated trying to upload them and write the comments next to them in a fashionable way. we've got for the first photo, leaving Wales, entering England, their first pale ale, day 1 en route (Ireland- somewhere south of Dublin), and not sure about the last one. enjoy!

Hello from Brazil

Hey All,

Just thought I would say what up from Bazil and share with you the pictures of Emma and Gen´s bikes from Traffic Bikes flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trafficbikes/sets/72157624868891544/

The only biking I have been able to do recently is some beach cursing on a huge beautiful white sand beach in Southern Brazil, warm and dry. I know this isn´t optimal training but it is all I have, so it will have to do. Brazil has been an amazing experience so far and I am getting excited and ampted to join the crew.

I wish them luck and safe travels.

Love Lucy

Wales is Beautiful but…HILLY.

So we have been travelling through Wales for 4 days now and we have discovered it is quite a hilly place. The first day of riding we thought would be a mellow 25 mile day but we ended up following a national bicycle route that took us up down and around and we ended up doing about 45 miles after we got of the ferry around 1 pm. Camping that night was very cold especially for Gen whose camelback leaked in her tent. We woke up the next day quite damp and didn’t get out of camp until close to 12 noon. Once on the road we almost immediately started climbing again. We believe we went over a 1300 foot pass. Luckily there were lots of sheep to distract us from the burning in our legs. They must have been quite frightened by us because every time we would pass one they would run a few feet down the road squat down and pee. Since what goes us must come down we did have a nice long down hill to cool us off. After several hours of this up and down without finding any convince stores we were all about to keel over with exhaustion when we finally found a restaurant/bar. We had a nice warm meal of beef pie (huli and I), potato’s, mushy pees (Gen) and coffee. We had a nice chat with one of the men at the bar who said we must be from the east coast of the USA because we were friendly enough to talk to him. Sorry for the bad rap west coasters. We were glad to hear from the people at the restaurant that it was all down hill to a campsite half a mile away. After spending several hours in the restaurant we were happy to roll right into camp. It was a warmer night than the pervious one and we were all well rested and able to get on the road by 9:30 the next day. We continued the down hill trend all the way to a village were we thought we might find a map ( I have only had the GPS to navigate) but there wasn’t one. We continued on the main road until the next town with an information centre and finally got a map of Wales. Now we could see that we had taken the road straight through the “mountains.” We continued to follow the main road which went mostly down and slightly into the wind until it started to drizzle and we decided to set up camp. One of our fellow campers told us the weather was going to be nasty for the next 3 days so we got permission to set up camp under the pavilion and just as it started to lash we grabbed our tents and ran them to cover. It was quite rainy when we woke up this morning so we decided to give our selves a rest day here. The weather is now starting to clear up so hopefully it will stay this way for tomorrow.

Wales is a beautiful place full of rolling and steep hills with green pastures, lots of sheep and cows, a few pigs and chickens and some massive dogs. Overall we have all loved the landscape and the people here but will be glad to continue on tomorrow.

Signing off...Emma

ps. sorry for any mistakes but i was typing very fast since i only paid for a half hour on the computer.

IRELAND IN THE BAG

From Malahide, we cycled through Dublin, a total of 75.6 km (47 mi), to a campsite in Wicklow right on Georges Channel. The day was a breeze thanks to the 20mph tail wind. There was a bit of swell when we arrived and we were tempted to hop in the water, but it was a bit chilly out and we would have had to pay for a warm shower. We woke in the am to sheep baa-ing and we were off to Arklow for some coffee. Most of the day was full of riding as we headed south toward Wexford where we hoped to have camped for the night. Unfortunately the camping season had ended and we continued further south to a campsite called St. Margarets. We cycled a total of 109.5 km (68.04 mi) that day. This am we awoke to he same cow that moo-ed us to sleep, and we cycled an additional 8 km (4.9 mi) to catch the ferry from Rosslare, Ireland to Fishguard, Wales. We are enjoying the down time on the ferry and hope to update again soon. Catch you later!

dublin!

first note from the girls! gen emailed me (georgia) and asked me to put it up. still can't believe they're already there! can't wait to meet up...

This unfortunately will be a short post, as I am typing on a iPod touch ( I apologize now for any spelling errors, the keys are incredibly tiny).

We made it to Dublin around 5 am Wednesday morning. After strolling casually through what we would later find out was customs, we eagerly headed to the baggage claim where were greeted first thing by our bike boxes (two of which had been inspected and I little banged up). Happy to have made with all of our gear we set out to find the taxi that would take us to the house we would be staying for the night. Maria W. and family (friends of a friend) were graciously willing to house us for two days, once we realized that more time maybe in order to sort out our first days route. A smart move which allowed us to venture into down town Dublin, see the sights, have a pint (for Julie) and meet up with a friend from home who has been studying abroad in Ireland. We've found it mind boggling the age of the city in comparison to home. Buildings dating back to the 1100's more than twice the age of our earliest settlements. We will have our first day of riding tomorrow, a 60 mile (about 100 km) ride along to coast to Wicklow. There is a 20 mph north east wind expected, brought with potentially for the first frost of the season. That's all for now... Stay tuned!

Gen+ company

Ps- Riding on the other side of the road should be interesting. We almost lost Emma a few times today while trying to cross the streets of Dublin. It is a interesting concept to adjust to. Wish us luck!

departure

THEY LEAVE TODAY!

i really can't believe it actually. while i'm terribly jealous that i can't be going with the first group (gen, emma, huli) to dublin today, i'm sending them off with all the good wishes i can. because we will be reunited in rome on xmas eve. can't really complain about that, can i?

so- good luck girls, be safe, check in every once in a while, and we'll see you in 3 months!

-georgia

Our European Bicycle Tour

Reunited and it Feels so Good....

we had a fun photo shoot

Our group has finally united, and we have accomplished quite a bit since our last post…2 months ago. It has been a busy summer. Most monumentally, we have all bought plane tickets to solidify our general plan for the trip. The first group (Emma, Gen, and Huli) will leave for Dublin on September 21, 2010. The second group(Lucy and Georgia) will arrive in Rome on December 23, 2010, and depending where the first group is toward the end of December, plans will be made for the second group will meet up.

We have made several visits off the island to check out some gear stores and purchase items for the trip. We are all pretty close to gathering most of the gear we will be bringing with us.

Huli will be riding the Surly long-haul trucker. She is currently toting it around town with panniers filled with beach towels and cans of carbonated beverages, both for weight training and convenience. The rest of the crew will be resting their bums on bicycles made by the one and only Traffic Cycle Design, owned and operated by Spencer Wright. check him out at http://www.trafficbikes.com/

We've also been brainstorming ideas for what to capture on our long journey. We're conducting short interviews of each of the members of the group and compiling a good account of our feelings, thoughts, aspirations, and goals before we embark. If anyone has anything specific that they would like to know about any of us or any questions for us, please let us know.

In a week, Georgia will head back to California and shortly after that Lucy will depart for Brazil, which will mean that we will be communicating via internet and phone until we all meet up again in Italy.

We're also still looking for any contacts, suggestions, advice about where to go and what to see so if you have any ideas, write to us! webikedhere@gmail.com Keep riding and thanks for reading!

tentative starting route

dublin-london-paris-marseilles-parma-rome-brindisi-messina

WE FOUND OUR BIKE FOR THE TRIP!!!

In fear of getting seperated from one and other we have decided to tour Europe on the Co-motion Periscope Trident!!!

*Gen, Emma & Huli

memorial day weekend

so first of all, memorial day weekend was a BLAST! the clan all got together and biked out to montauk and a few biked back as well, 63.06 miles i believe it was.

we gathered around 8:00 am at the barn at the wright house and proceeded to take photos and get ready for the big ride. the cut was closed which made it an easy trek across the sand and by the time we got to the wright & company barn in bridgehampton, breakfast was all set up and the bloody mary's started flowing! we really have stepped it up over the years. the caterers made us a beautiful breakfast and the alcohol was definitely a great addition to the mix.

the next stop was guild hall of course, and then on to amagansett elementary school where we played a really good game of ultimate frisbee and munched on a few sandwiches from mary's marvelous.

the ride out to montauk from here went pretty smoothly as well. it's amazing how much shorter the trip seems to get as we all get older and more able. the first bikers got out to the flagpole around 2:15 pm; the train was scheduled for 3:35. a few of us turned around and biked back (including myself, emma, gen, and lucy), leaving at approximately 2:29 and arriving back at the wright barn to sip down a few beers from the keg (ice cold public house IPA), at around 5:00 pm.

after dispersing for a while, showering, arranging furniture, and setting up for the next round of partying, we all reconvened at the wright house for a pig roast and more keg beer and wine. we were blessed with another one of kenny's poem recitals and i'm confident when i say that it was a big hit, we all had a great time.

but yes, we did accomplish a few other things this weekend other than drinking and eating. for the first time a few of the group members got together and talked about the euro trip! this was really great because i'd really been feeling out of the loop, being all the way on the left coast and pretty much out of contact with the rest of the girls. the night before bike day we got together (gen, lucy, emma and i--huli is currently on vacation) and made pins that had our blog on it and some very artistically beautiful drawings that got people real excited. we handed them out to everyone on the sunday ride and we're hoping for some followers!!!

we also tied up a few other lose ends; talked about gear and money and such. even though the plans are still (and probably will be) up in the air for a while, it was nice to be able to chat together about the whole thing. looks like we're thinking that the first group will start out in london, make their way south through france, then down through italy and meet up with the second group (lucy and i will graduate in december and fly over right before christmas) down in southern italy, possibly sicily or maybe even greece. from there on we'll probably play things by ear but we would like to explore spain, portugal, maybe make our way north and go through the netherlands, germany and denmark, then loop back to the east, head south, you know just poke around and take it as it comes!

of course we'll see how the plans play out over the next few months, never know how they could change. thanks for reading and remember, we're looking for any contacts in any countries around europe. if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone, give us their digits and address, we'd really appreciate knowing someone... somewhere.

ride on.

-georgia

UPDATE

So I just wanted to let everyone know that we have made a major change to the route of our bicycle trip. Rather that starting in northern Denmark and racing the weather southward we have decided to start in Southern France and head towards Italy first. We will spend our winter months in Italy and Greece. Once the weather begins to warm we will head north again. We will do our original route but in reverse. This will give us more time to take trips inland since we will not be racing against winter weather. This will hopefully put us in the position where we can spend the summer touring Scandinavia.

Other than this major change most everything is progressing the same. We are still working on designing our bikes and researching gear and rout options. If anyone has any suggestions for us we would love to hear.

-Emma

PS-if anyone is interested in checking out our old blog that Lucy wrote while we were traveling across the country the adress is...

http://gelsjourney.blogspot.com/

Packing List (as of now)

PACKING LIST
Documents:Valid PassportLicense
New debit card &/or credit card
Camping pass/card**
Train pass**

Gear

Bike:LOCK!!!
Comfortable saddle
Handle bar bag*(highly recommended)
At least rear rack w/ pannier
Front rack w/ pannier*
Rack-Tubus, Axium, etc.Panniers-Ortlieb, Axium, etc.
Spare tubes (2+)**
Spare tires**
Camel back ( one liter+)
Reflective triangle (Adventure cycling)
Spare cleatsBento box (small compartment that attaches to your top tube)
Lights:Head lamp*
Tail light(red)
Head Light(white)- Cats eye, light in motion)
Camping:Sleeping bag (20-30 degree down)
Sleeping pad (therma-rest)
Tent (one person, three season)
Stove/cook wear (one for group)
Clothing:
Bike shorts (1-2)
Rain pants- Showers pass, etc.
Rain shell
Wicking long sleeve shirt
" " short sleeve shirt
Ultra light down jacket* - Patagonia, or marmot
HELMETGloves (for cold weather)
Cleats(shoes)/ spares parts
Shoe rain coverBra (1-2)*
Underwear(1-3)*
Socks (2 pairs, tall and short)
Sunglasses
Light PJ/off bike pant*
Flip flops*
Shorts*

Miscellaneous:
Journal,pen, pencil
Duct tape
Camcorder
Digital Camera
Ipod/ other musical device*
Chargers and adaptors
Tarp (for covering bikes)
Knife
Water bottles
Bandanna (2-3 crucial)
Stuff sacks (2-3*)
Travel towel

* - Optional ** - Undecided

Composed by Gen & lucy

THE BIG CITY

We have had a very busy month since our first blog updates. On Thursday March 4th Gen, Lucy and I woke up super early to take a trip to the city. Our mission was well planned out, first to B&H to check out video cameras, from there we would hop on a subway down town to look at some bike shops as we walked to a raw restaurant Gen wanted to check out. We took the 7:20 train from Ronkonkoma station and as we boarded the train we once again felt just a little out of place in the commuter rush. With a mad dash to the ticket kiosk we got our tickets and ran to claim our seats on the train crowded with business suits, briefcases and newspapers. We got to the city around 8:30 and emerged from the underground to find ourselves in the bustling city. Since B&H didn’t open until 9am Gen and I decided to look for our banks. Before even walking a block, to our surprise we found our banks right next to each other. By the time we were done with the banking, B&H was nearly open so we set off to arrive there right on time. I have never been in B&H before but boy is that place amazing the first thing I noticed was the extensive system of conveyor belts above our heads whizzing merchandise from one place to another within the store. Since we were nearly the first people to walk into the store, finding a salesman to answer our questions did not prove to be all that difficult. We checked out several models of camcorder from Sony, Cannon and Panasonic. Sony was quickly tossed out off the picture, due to its lack of compatibility with Mac. After asking tons of questions we decided to wait on line to ask some more questions about microphones and wide-angle lenses. For some reason the line was moving very slowly and there was a lot of drama behind the counter about someone who was late for work. When it was finally our turn Lucy and I stepped up to the counter and before we could even say anything the guy exclaimed, “You must not be from around here because you are awfully patient!” It did seem like the people on line before and after us were awfully impatient. After milling about the store for over an hour, we were able to decide on the Canon HF-S 10. Not wanting to make any rash decisions (or have to carry a camera around the city), we decide to come back after our bike shop tour of the city, and with a full stomach.

From B&H we went back to Penn Station and Caught a Subway down to Chambers and W. Broadway where our first bike shop stop was. Here we tried on ultra lightweight and packable rain gear made by Gore Bicycle Wear. Even though they didn’t have exactly what we were looking for it still gave us a good sense of what the product was like. I really liked the Jackets and after having done some more research over the past couple of weeks I am pretty sure I will buy one of their jackets. Our next stop was a small Travel Book store where I was able to check out a few different types of maps. Unfortunately they were completely sold out of the Europe Road map that I wanted to see. We continued on our journey and stopped at a couple more bike shops and also EMS before we arrived at Quintessence, a raw restaurant on East 10th and 1st avenue. Personally I did not have a very great raw experience. Although I have had plenty of raw food I have enjoyed the chili I ordered was just not doing it for me. The Taco was extremely delicious but unfortunately there just wasn’t enough of it and too much of the soup. Gen enjoyed her burrito, which is good because she is the true raw foodist of the group. From here we hopped back on the subway to make one last stop at B&H. Although we knew what we were going to purchase it still took us over an hour to finally decided on the camera, UV filter, microphone, wide angle lens, and a hood. After checking out and retrieving our backpacks from the bag check we headed back to the train with some new excitement in our step.

Since this day we have begun to take footage for a documentary we are making about this bicycle trip.

MORE TO COME SOON…

Written by: Emma Woodward

FIRST TWO HOURS

UPDATE!!!
We've set the departure date (September 20th), and starting point (northern Denmark)!!!

First Post!!

Hooray! We made it. We have officially started our blog. Stay tuned for more information... Feel free to leave any questions or comments regarding our trip. Thanks, and ride your bike!